Watch It

For any of you who have read my blog for a while now it's no surprise to you that my weight always has been an "issue" for me. I've talked about it on here some and I've even vowed to be accountable on here, etc. It always seemed like I'd be so motivated then I'd post about it here and Satan would send his army after me to make me fail. That's one reason I'm a little reluctant to say anything about it at all. But since Satan is not my boss I decided I'd post about it anyway. I actually seriously started back on my weight loss journey last August after looking at my friend Kelly's blog. I had been in town spending time with another friend but took a break to meet up with some other NWA friends. As we were leaving lunch Kelly took our picture, of course.

I thought after looking at the first one that I had clearly packed back on the pounds.

Then I saw this one...YIKES...how'd did I get back to this place. Perhaps it wouldn't have been such a shock if the post right before this one on Kelly's blog didn't include pictures from our NYC trip...when I was at my smallest.

It wasn't easy looking at the two posts right next to each other and seeing how I had failed and let myself get back to a place I swore I'd never be. It was that moment that I decided I was done. I was realizing that my struggle was not just a physical one but a mental and spiritual one as well. I was with my friend Jenny at the time and she and I both decided to make a change. We knew that we'd fail if we didn't have support so that's when we put our heads together and came up with a plan that would help us both lose weight. We had both done Weight Watchers before and knew it worked but neither of us had the desire or money to commit to the meetings again. So we thought we'd just keep track of our food and our points and at the end of each day we'd e-mail each other all that we'd eaten, how much water we drank, and if we did any activity. I will say that this was the best thing, in regards to weight loss, that I have EVER done. She and I were very successful. I lost about 25 pounds and she lost about 20 (she has less to lose than I do). We both really stayed motivated and did great until the holidays. Since the holidays I would do really well a few weeks then have a few off days. This cycle would repeat and in the end I was just maintaining. I ended up making some other changes such as cutting out sugar, eating only good carbs, not drinking diet cokes, and not having any artificial sweeteners. Not to mention I started working out more. The scales didn't really change but my body did. Plus I felt so much better! Of course as I began to get ready for my upcoming travels and as life got busy I got lazy. This brings us to today. Today is my DAY back at it. I had lost 25 pounds and unfortunately I found a few of those over the last month. I refuse to let all of my hard work last fall go to waste and gain it all back. Plus I still have another 20 to 25 pounds to lose. So as of this morning I started my food tracking again. I'm a true believer in the Weight Watcher program. It's the only realistic way to lose weight and keep it off. If you struggle with your weight like I do I encourage you to try it. I also encourage you to find a partner to communicate with daily. It's one thing to go to a meeting once a week but when you KNOW that there is a person who is going to know every bite you take every single day you tend to stop and really think about your choices.

The only thing I'm really dreading about counting points again is that I get in a rut with the foods I eat. I tend to eat the same thing for breakfast every morning as well as the same lunches and snacks. I try to cook some for dinner but for the next couple of weeks I'm sticking to frozen meals just to get my body used to the right portion sizes. Here's where you come in. I would love any kind of suggestions as far as foods you like to snack on or recipes you like to cook. I'd actually be open to any kinds of suggestions in regards to weight loss. If you don't want to leave it in a comment my e-mail address is on my profile page.

I'm so glad to be back on it today. I'm ready to get this weight off once and for all. Throughout this whole process I'm constantly praying that God will give me strength and self-control because I don't ever want to be back to the first two pictures seen above.

From time to time I'll report on how things are going but only when I feel like I'm strong enough to stand up against Satan's attacks. He knows how big of an issue this is for me and I don't want to give him any kind of foothold to get at me. My God is bigger though so victory is mine!